Burna Boy apologises for saying he wanted to distance himself from Afrobeats

The singer previously claimed in an interview that the genre “lacks substance”

Burna Boy has apologised over comments he made in a past interview where he distanced himself from Afrobeats, the genre he’s commonly associated with.

In a 2023 Apple Music interview, the Nigerian singer claimed that Afrobeats “lacks substance”, and that many artists in the genre had “almost no real life experiences”.

In a new interview with Eddie Kadi for The Official UK Afrobeats Chart Show, Burna Boy said that he was in a “dark place mentally” when he made those comments, apologising to fans.

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He claimed that he didn’t want his music to be pigeonholed into a specific sound, explaining: “I didn't understand why people wanted my music to be inside one box.”

"The way I saw it, if you just put everything into Afrobeats, you're now comparing Socrates to Kendrick Lamar because they both said two things that rhyme so they both must be rappers,” he said.

The GRAMMY Award-winning singer, who made history in 2023 when he became the first African artist to headline a stadium in the UK, said that he sees his sound as a “mix of elements”, but explained: “I got the point of the Afrobeats tag in that moment.”

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He also said that, following backlash he received over the comments in that interview, he now understands and has “come to terms with” his outlook on the genre.

"I totally get it and I apologise for that confusion,” he said. “I learnt to embrace the fact that I will always be different, I'm not going to be the favourite but I'm going to be the best.”

Check out the full interview here.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Associate Digital Editor, follow her on Twitter

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